The Summer Solstice marks the beginning of summer and also is the longest day of the year. It normally falls on the 21st of June, but on Thursday June 20, Joy and i went for a walk in Santa Monica after dinner. I thought i always miss summer solstice but the second longest day of the year would suffice.

Its been over 4 years since we last lived in Santa Monica, and so this time around it felt new again. We skipped 3rd Street Promenade and headed down to the pier instead. While passing Pacific Park i remembered that i had an expired Groupon that head credit for $10 each so i thought it was a good time to try to redeem it for a ride on the ferris wheel. I now realize that most workers don’t know how to use just the credit and just give the full value of the Groupon instead since its easier. So we got our full day wrist bans but with only an hour on the meter and the fact Joy is preggo we couldn’t do anything more than the Ferris Wheel.

After the pier Joy and I drove to Scoops Westside for some dessert for some Brown Brown Bread, and Balsamic Fig ice cream.

This day also marked Instagram’s entry into the video world to take on Twitter’s Vine app. I tried my hand on it, and thought it was cool, but in the wrong hands is going to be horrible to deal with. Click the image above or here to view the video.

Thursday night Joy and I went to Happy Hour for the first time since the spring and went back to Copa d’ Oro in Santa Monica for their $5 drinks. Unbeknownst to me was that i also made my 1000ths Instagram Photo. Also i’m still on pace for my 365 photos for the year with only a few weeks left to finally accomplish my goal. I’m still not big on tagging my photos like some people do, but i have started tagging a few which i think are funny or actually look good.

These are some of my favorite recent photos or you can see ALL of my photos on my Instagram page if you’re not on Instagramon your phone.